diff --git a/src/nix/env.cc b/src/nix/env.cc
index 7cc019c1d..bc4e1b5e5 100644
--- a/src/nix/env.cc
+++ b/src/nix/env.cc
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 #include "command.hh"
 #include "run.hh"
+#include "strings.hh"
 
 using namespace nix;
 
@@ -92,9 +93,10 @@ struct CmdShell : InstallablesCommand, MixEnvironment
             }
         }
 
+        // TODO: split losslessly; empty means .
         auto unixPath = tokenizeString<Strings>(getEnv("PATH").value_or(""), ":");
         unixPath.insert(unixPath.begin(), pathAdditions.begin(), pathAdditions.end());
-        auto unixPathString = dropEmptyInitThenConcatStringsSep(":", unixPath);
+        auto unixPathString = concatStringsSep(":", unixPath);
         setEnv("PATH", unixPathString.c_str());
 
         Strings args;